Song Stories
Folk and Country Influcences
By the Grateful Dead
Written by John Phillips
1959
.jpg)
"I know my uncle, he's as honest as me / That's as honest as a Denver man can be."
Personal History
The narrator of this song openly hedges on his own honesty while telling a story that proves his dishonesty. Though not written by the band, this unreliable narrator sits right at home in the Grateful Dead's repertoire. Like many Dead songs, it explores life from society's margins, perhaps reflecting the psychedelic commitment to seeing life from multiple perspectives. Some of these perspectives, like our narrator's, are deliberately unsavory.
The story begins deceptively simply: a nephew and uncle riding through the American West. This cowboy song predated the "Bakersfield Dead" era of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead by years, with Bobby's performance foreshadowing the direction the band would eventually embrace.
True to the genre, we encounter west Texas cowboys in a bar, flush with payday money, liquor, and – in Bobby's added detail – weed. Their wealth "seemed a shame" to our travelers, and "you know my uncle, he starts a friendly game." The seemingly benign uncle finds it tragically unfortunate that these cowboys have money he doesn't.
The song names the game - "high-low jack and the winner take the hand." In poker, "hijack" and "lojack" are positions known for strategic advantage and control of the betting. When the uncle "starts a friendly game," the very name of the game carries undertones of strategic manipulation - fitting for what will be revealed as a deliberate con rather than a friendly pastime.
The uncle's choice of game signals his intentions. The narrator's claim of being "as honest as a Denver man can be" reveals his character through immediate irony - he's telling us directly that he's not honest at all. The combination of the big city reference, the name of the game, and the uncle's suspicious behavior creates the clear impression that he is, as the cowboys soon accuse him of being, a card shark taking their money.
The confrontation escalates to violence. When a cowboy reaches for his gun, the narrator shoots him and another cowboy dead. The uncle's true objective becomes clear when, "in the confusion, my uncle grabbed the gold." They flee Santa Fe for Mexico.
The final verse masterfully compresses multiple betrayals into a few lines. The narrator declares, "I love them cowboys, I love that gold / I love my Uncle, god rest his soul." Of these proclaimed loves, only the gold survives. Following his uncle's teaching to its logical conclusion, the narrator takes the gold and leaves his mentor's "dead ass there by the side of the road." The only survivors are the narrator and his ill-gotten gains, a fitting end to this tale of cascading betrayals.
Personal History
The evening takes on a special poignance now that Mohan is gone. We stood among the quiet festival at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, where we had each performed earlier, in the nearly fully dark twilight, as Tyler Grant went into dazzling technical feats during the musical break of Me and My Uncle. He played solo, but he carried the tune through on light and bouncy melodies, doing the song right as Mohan and I glanced at each other - this was a very impressive performance - and great song. We knew the song well, both being Deadheads enough to know their most-played of all their songs, and it being such a staple of songs that inspired our songs.
